The present invention relates to card reading devices, and more particularly to the testing of card reading devices.
Card reading devices, such as credit card or smart card reading devices, are well known in the art. During the product development phase, long term life testing is performed on the card reading devices to determine their reliability. Magnetically encoded and/or smart test cards must be retrieved from and reinsertion into the card reading device under test. To properly test the card reading devices, up to one million retrieval and reinsertion cycles arc required. To use human intervention to perform the retrievals and reinsertions is impractical and would necessitate significant human resources.
One conventional approach is to physically mount a test card to the shaft of an air cylinder, place the test card into a card reading device, and extend and contract the shaft to pass the magnetic stripe of the test card by a read head. However, this does not accurately simulate the retrievals and reinsertions of a card by human users and would only apply for slot type card readers.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an automated card insertion/retrieval device for card reading device testing. The device should simulate the retrieval from and insertion of cards to the card reading device by humans. The present invention addresses such a need.
An automated insertion/retrieval device for card reading device testing includes a housing assembly whose back face is coupled to a shaft of an air cylinder. Coupled to the side faces proximate to the front face of the housing assembly are upper and lower gripper roller assemblies. As the test card is expelled from a card reading device, the test card is gripped by the gripper roller assemblies. At the end of its travel, the test card activates a microswitch and supplies air to the air cylinder. The air cylinder shaft retracts and moves the housing assembly away from the card reading device until the test card abuts a stationary card bumper. The stationary card bumper causes the test card to shift in position back toward the card reading device, deactivating the microswitch and turning off the air supply to the air cylinder. An internal return spring of the air cylinder extends the shaft and returns the housing assembly to its original position, reinserting the test card into the card reading device. The position shift ensures that the card reading device under test will sense the presence of the test card and accept it for the next cycle.